† It’s Not Over Quite Yet: The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Last notes that, “Lost in the excitement of Barack Obama's coronation this week was an inconvenient fact of Tuesday's results: Hillary Clinton netted approximately 150,000 votes and is now poised to finish the primary season as the popular-vote leader. In some quaint circles, presumably, these things still matter.” Here’s his reasoning:

Real Clear Politics keeps track of six versions of the popular-vote total. They are, in ascending order of inclusivity: (1) the popular vote of sanctioned contests; (2) the total of sanctioned contests, plus estimated votes from the Iowa, Nevada, Maine and Washington caucuses; (3) the popular vote plus Florida; (4) popular vote plus Florida and the caucuses; (5) the popular vote plus Florida and Michigan; (6) popular vote plus Florida, Michigan, and the caucus estimates. After Tuesday, Clinton now leads in two of these six counts.

If you believe that the most important precept in democratic politics is to “count every vote,” then the sixth category is the most inclusive, and here Clinton leads Obama by 71,301 votes. …

But could Clinton take over the lead in all of the popular-vote tabulations? Quite possibly. In Puerto Rico's last major election, two million people voted. Let's assume that turnout for this historic vote - Puerto Rico has never had a presidential primary before - will be equal to or greater than that turnout.

If Clinton were to win Puerto Rico by 20 points she would pick up at least a 400,000-vote margin. This would allow her to swamp Obama in the popular-vote counts, which include Florida, making her the leader in four of the six permutations of the popular vote. At that point, Obama would be left clinging to the least-inclusive count, which he now leads by 441,558 votes (551,780, including caucuses).

Last takes issue with those who insist that Hillary should quit because she has no path to victory: “Clinton's path is both obvious and simple: Win the popular vote and force Barack Obama and his cheerleaders to explain why that doesn't matter.”

He warns that while partisans “almost always” rally around the winning candidate, “[t]he problem arises when a candidate's supporters believe that their guy (or gal) didn't lose.”

He’s not kidding. In her review of the disputed HBO docudrama, "Recount," about the 36-day dispute over recounting ballots cast in FL in the 2000 presidential election that was resolved by the Supreme Court, New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley's observes: “Many Democrats are still suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from the way they remember Republican strategists steamrolling over fairness and fair play to unman Michael S. Dukakis in 1988.”

It’s 20 year later and Dems still haven’t gotten over Dukakis! “Recount” suggests it could take them longer than the 40 years Moses spent wandering the desert to get over the 2000 election. And “women of Clinton's generation, who fear they may now not live to see a woman president” will go to their graves without getting over Obama being “the arrogant interloper dashing their dream,” as Jonathan Tilove put it in RealClearPolitics. 

† Après Spitzer: No sooner did former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) pack up his desk, the bitter feud between him and the majority leader of the state senate became history, reports The New York Times:   
 

The other day, the state’s top Republican, Joseph L. Bruno, stepped out of a meeting to take a phone call.

“Governor Bruno?” the voice on the other end said.

“Who’s this?” Mr. Bruno asked, momentarily disoriented.

“It’s David!” said the real governor, David A. Paterson, who was in Washington. “You are the governor!”

Technically it was true. Under the State Constitution, when Mr. Paterson leaves New York his duties transfer to Mr. Bruno.

“I’m glad you called,” cracked Mr. Bruno, who described the exchange later to a reporter. “I’m going to run right down and see what the hell bills are hanging around and make a few appointments.”

The back-and-forth was lighthearted, but it underscored a new partnership that has political benefits for both men. It is a shift that is turning Albany upside down and making some of Mr. Paterson’s fellow Democrats privately uneasy. Mr. Paterson has quietly declared a political truce with Mr. Bruno and his party. …

[T]he two men are politicians, and making peace has potential political benefits as they pursue their respective agendas. Mr. Paterson, who admits that he was unprepared to be thrust suddenly into the role of governor, is trying to define himself to the public as someone who can get things done, so he can buttress his chances of being elected in 2010 on his own merits.  …

Mr. Bruno, meanwhile, is determined to hang on to the majority in the Senate; he lost two seats during Mr. Spitzer’s tenure in part because of Mr. Spitzer’s aggressive campaigning and fund-raising.

“Steamroller” Spitzer must be steaming at the thought of Bruno being acting governor instead of being behind bars.

Editorial Note: In other Spitzer-related news, NYC-based performance artist Karen Finley is working on a project about the sex scandal that drove him from office that includes a monologue that follows Emperors Club ho, “Kristen,” step by step, inch by inch from NYC’s Penn Station to Room 871 in Washington D.C.’s Mayflower Hotel, as well as this imaginary campaign speech:

Before you vote for me, I would like you to consider your relationship to lust and commitment, or commitment and lust, or the separation of lust and state, or sex and state. I am an undiscovered self, and in voting for me, you’ll be participating in my life as a mirror, or a journey. Our mythic voyage. The soul’s search for meaning. I ask you to join me in the soul’s search for meaning. The yearning is my campaign promise to you. Let me give you the gift of a rigorous passion thrust into the political intercourse process.

I am your candidate. Vote for me. You will see the woman, the mother of my children, and see her face of fear, of sadness - this is a campaign promise. The eyes of a frightened child battered in all of her feminine grace and glory. You may look at the feminine masochism as my inverted sadism. My wife, before your very eyes, will become numbed and in shock for your own pleasure. I will give you her agony in a way never seen since the grief of Jackie.

Oy, the humanity! The death penalty would be more humane to Spitzer than this. To think The Stiletto’s tax dollars pay for this dreck.  

† Waiting To Exhale: Is Iran A Threat No Longer?: In a new report, the International Atomic Energy Agency called Iran’s supposedly suspended research into nuclear weapons development an ongoing “matter of serious concern” and insisted that Iran owes the agency “substantial explanations,” according to The New York Times:

The nine-page report accused the Iranians of a willful lack of cooperation, particularly in answering allegations that its nuclear program may be intended more for military use than for energy generation.

Part of the agency’s case hinges on 18 documents listed in the report and presented to Iran that, according to Western intelligence agencies, indicate the Iranians have ventured into explosives, uranium processing and a missile warhead design - activities that could be associated with constructing nuclear weapons. …

Iran has dismissed the documents as “forged” or “fabricated,” claimed that its experiments and projects had nothing to do with a nuclear weapons program and refused to provide documentation and access to its scientists to support its claims.

The report also makes the allegation that Iran is learning to make more powerful centrifuges that are operating faster and more efficiently, the product of robust research and development that have not been fully disclosed to the agency.

That means that the country may be producing enriched uranium - which can be used to make electricity or to produce bombs - faster than expected at the same time as it a replaces its older generation of less reliable centrifuges. 
 

† Al Sharpton: Where’s His Beef?: WCBS (Channel 2-New York) reports that “Police are mobilizing a massive presence in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in the wake of increased tension between African American and Jewish communities”:

In the past month, 20-year-old Andrew Charles, who is black, was beaten up, and the suspect is Jewish.

Then last week, 16-year-old Alon Sherman, who is Jewish, had his jaw broken while being allegedly robbed by two black teens. The attackers were arrested Thursday. Namor Clarke, 17, and Basean Parker, 14, will be charged as adults for last Friday's assault on Sherman, officials said.

Friction between blacks and Hassidic Jews in the community hasn’t been this high since 1991, when the Rev. Al Sharpton incited a crowd of blacks to rise up against apartheid profiteering Jewish “diamond merchants,” resulting in the fatal stabbing of young scholar Yankel Rosenbaum as the crowd shouted, “Get the Jew! Kill the Jew!”   

† A Rat Is Not A Pig Is Not A Dog Is Not A Boy - And Neither Is A Chimp: After the Austrian supreme court ruled against animal rights activist Paula Stibbe’s petition to have a 26-year old chimp named Matthew legally declared a person so she can become his guardian, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is considering taking up an appeal of the ruling, reports the Evening Standard’s Website ThisIsLondon.co.uk:

Miss Stibbe … says she is not trying to get the chimp declared a human, just a person. …

The legal wrangle began in February 2007, when the sanctuary where Matthew lives with another chimp, Rosi, plus a crocodile filed for bankruptcy protection.

Activists want to ensure the apes do not wind up homeless. Both were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments.

Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter. Their upkeep costs £4,000 a month.

Donors have offered to help, but under Austrian law, only a human can receive personal gifts. …

A spokesman for the court in Strasbourg said: 'Any application regarding this chimpanzee will be considered at a primary level by a magistrate and a lawyer before we decide whether it deserves a full-blown hearing.' 
 

† A Shocking Case Of Sticker Shock: Huling Brothers Auto Center employees Adrian Gregory Dillard, 33, and Ted Ernest Coxwell, 40, were each sentenced to a year in prison for stealing $70,000 from a mentally ill customer, reports The Seattle Times. In January, a jury convicted both men guilty of first-degree theft after deliberating for only four hours; Coxwell was also found guilty of residential burglary, and Dillard was found guilty of money laundering. Coxwell, who spent a year in jail from his arrest to the conclusion of his trial, has been released.